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Critique of Early Retirement Study Disputed
Aging and Work 5,2 (Spring 1982): 93-110
Cohort(s):
Older Men
Publisher:
National Council on the AgingKeyword(s):
Benefits, Disability; Early Retirement; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Mortality; Pensions; Retirement; Social Security

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This article responds to a critique (Myers, l982) challenging the research findings published in Aging and Work (Kingson, l98l) that indicate a significant portion of men withdraw from the labor force before age 62 due to health problems, but without receiving disability benefits. The critique also argues that findings from the various studies showing poor health to be an important contributing factor to retirement before age 65 are not necessarily valid. The critique is rejected because: (l) it fails to recognize that conclusions published in the Aging and Work article are based on several health indicators--not simply mortality findings; (2) it fails to acknowledge that its central criticism--the possibility of a fallacy of aggregation which invalidates the mortality findings--was accounted for in the original analysis; and (3) the hypothetical model developed to illustrate the inconclusiveness of the findings is based on questionable and often unsubstantiated assumptions.